My Lai Massacre :: essays papers

My Lai On March 16, 1968, "Charlie Company" was sent into a small Viet Cong village called (by the U.S.) My Lai 4. Their instructions by commanding officers were: "... kill every man, woman, child and animal in the village. Burn all the homes .... nothing should be walking, growing or crawling." Orders were followed, and as I read the first 65 pages of this book, I was exposed to the detailed death of 306 civilians, mostly women, small children, and old people. There was no threat to any American GIs ... there were no Viet Cong Solders in the area. I read of the rape of a 14 year old girl by twenty GIs ... in front of the parents. They were all shot after the GIs were "done with their business." This was only one of many. Most of the murders were conducted, BY ORDER OF OFFICERS, to round-up the families from their homes, forced into ditches, and shot. Women dove to cover their children. Later, children just old enough to walk crawled out from under their mutilated mothers' bodies, only to be shot as target practice by the GIs. It is later estimated that approximately 500 civilians were murdered, and (probably) no VC were in the area. I could go into detail about the killing. However, most of the book was devoted to the time before the massacre, and afterward. The officers and GIs of "Charlie Company" were introduced in the beginning of the book: the officers had been social outcasts all their life (LT. Calley & Medina). Both had decided to devote their life to the military. The GIs were selected for "Charlie Company" specifically because they had all scored too low on the initial exam to be put into a regular battalions. After the massacre, nothing was done. As a matter of fact, "Charlie Company" was praised for having the "most kills" in one day. By late 1969, most of the GIs in Charlie Company were civilians again, and a few began to tell what they had seen (and participated in). A Government Investigation was called against Lt. Calley (who ordered, and participated in the murders). Some of the photographs from the massacre were published. You wouldn't believe what the civilian response was! The overwhelming public response was to drop the charges; they thought that there was nothing wrong with the massacre, OR they didn't believe it really happened. As a matter of fact, Lt. Calley had become a hero as an AMERICAN! There was a hugely-supported